


dreamcatcher

by aestheticisms (R_Vienna)



Category: Hikari Gakuen
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 03:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10631043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_Vienna/pseuds/aestheticisms
Summary: KOTONE: did you know that ran spent 2 days planning a single date? it was sooooo funny.MEGUMI: don't text me for this, or ever, actually.It's the summer before their final year.





	

**Author's Note:**

> commission 4 jackie plz read about her hikagaku girls ran/asuka scalped me and my family
> 
> it was really hard writing this actually bc i care so damn much about them, my fckin otp, thanks for letting me write them~
> 
> commissions r open again, taking 2 slots, @ me
> 
> \-- angie @oceanblogging

 

(dreamcatcher.) 

in my dreams, i dream a mesmerizing dream--

.

.

.

"Ehhhh? A sweets cafe? That doesn't really sound like your scene."

Instead of fiddling with the hem of her blazer, Ran scratches the back of her head in a way she hopes is cool and collected. Her standard summer uniform vest is in the wash somewhere, so she’s stuck with either her hair or her blouse, and Ran was too preoccupied with the way Asuka looked at her to make an actual decision. Asuka doesn’t hold back at all, huh. Even after a year of knowing her, and a couple of weeks dating her, Ran was still surprised by her bluntness. Of course, this came after the side glance and quiet remark, hidden with a sweater sleeve and a mumble. It's not like she was wrong, either. The Ran from last summer would have balked at the idea of spending three thousand yen for an over glorified buffet. She was fine with visiting the Lawson's down the street and picking up some red bean buns there, thank you very much.

But, um. She wants to prepare a response, but the only thing she gets out is:

"Kotone wouldn't shut up about it at practice." 

This earns her an arched brow. Asuka hums a little, and stuffs her hands into her pockets. Despite the summer heat, she’s still attached to her hoodie. It’s almost cute, but what makes it better is her hair was in a bun. Ran wants to pay attention to the conversation but her gaze flickers to the nape of her neck. 

"S'that so? Bishop-san would seem well-versed in that."

Ran's ears turn red with every word the softer girl utters. Soft only in appearance, never in anything else. Asuka's stare turns into something lighter, a smile dances on her lips and it makes Ran feel dizzy. She's got a nice smile, the kind that she wants to see forever, but ugh, she's out here, shoving her foot in her mouth.  

"Yeah, yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm ignorant, or anythin'. It just ain't my scene."

"You were the one who brought it up, Ran." 

How aggravating! Was it always this hard to talk to her? No, it wasn't. Was it a dating thing? They were dating. Asuka Washio was her girlfriend, her punk-rock girlfriend with soft hair and long eyelashes and really cool dance moves--she's waving her hand in front of Ran's face.

"Uh, you there?"

She's awfully close too, _jeez Asuka, when did you get so casual around me._ Ran tucks a strand of dark hair behind her pierced ear, and Asuka looks up at her. She taps her sneakers against Ran's boots. Is this an appropriate moment to brush a fingertip against her cheek? Or tell her she looks nice today? Ran has so many things she wants to say, but she always settles for something simple. It's just how she is, and she hopes Asuka can forgive her for that. She leans in.  

“Heh.”

“Was that a snort?” 

Ran gives her a quick kiss, their lips barely brush because Asuka keeps trying to stifle a laugh. 

“Are you going to try again?” 

“You’re unbelievable, you know?”

They walk home, it’s a sparkling afternoon. The sun dips behind the mountainside and leaves only carmine in the sky. Soon enough, they’ll have to part ways, but until then, Ran peppers her with kisses. On her cheek, on her neck, the edge of her lips. There’s nothing stopping her from kissing her, really kissing her with her hand against Asuka’s back, her fingers in her long, long hair, she could take down the bun—

But, it’s still soon for that, right. Weeks, and she’s still nervous about hand holding. Opposite of punk rock, it’s actually really lame, but, agh. 

Ran makes sure to do it right when Asuka has to go. She kisses her forehead and presses her hand against her cheek. Asuka sticks out her tongue. Just a little bit. I t’s cute. the moment’s over. Asuka waves, and turns the corner. 

.

.

.

“Dude. Listen to this. Ran-chan is calling me, her beautiful, handsome, and incredible older brother, for advice—!”

“Am I on speaker phone?”

“Yes! Of course! Everyone’s here.” 

“Mm, Shigeru?”

“Yeah?”

“Do me a solid and punch Kei in the face for me.”

There’s a scuffle on the other side of the line. Ran tries to hide her self satisfied smirk with her hand, but fails miserably. Kei Takarabe makes a noise of defeat, and then, pain. There’s a snicker on the other side that echoes in the phone. Ran shifts her weight from one foot to the other. She waits for the lecture, but there isn’t one, just Kei cursing loudly, and after that, a small sigh.

“Ran?” 

“Hikaru.” 

She can imagine him now, fish eyed and detached, leaning against some hallway. An over the top coord with perfect dark hair, and a slight look of disgust. There’s always a mess in Kei’s apartment, so maybe they’re having practice at his place today. She sits down on her bed, legs stretched out, her back against the wall. Hikaru’s always so serious, too. Only with her, out of all of them. Sometimes he’ll join in on the teasing, but, for once she’s glad he’s out of it. 

“If anything, I'm sure she wouldn’t mind sharing a dessert. Maybe take her to a cafe. A buffet is a little excessive.” 

The smirk is so obvious, it drips out of the phone line. It makes Ran roll her eyes, she thanks him anyways for his advice, and tells him to tell everyone else she says goodnight. 

Kei and Hikaru’s advice was always ultimately useless. Hikaru was too right and Kei was too wrong, when you put their ideas together it only left her with a headache. Ran wonders why she even bothered to call but there’s a small, vocal part of her that sighs, _your stupid big brother got the love of his life to move in before you could even talk to yours._

Not to say that Asuka Washio is the love of her short life, it’s nothing so serious. That’s not punk rock at all, it’s all about the here and now, the present day. She could spend hours going through all of Asuka’s charm points, it would take two CDs to properly convey how much she meant, but—they’re still so young and yearning, learning still. It seems silly to dwell, it’s out of character for her to be so fixated. Even if she cared so much and wanted only the best for them, it didn’t change the endgame.

They only had a year left. That meant only one thing. Ran puts her hands over her face and groans. Just one thing, huh. 

She makes a reservation for two at a cafe in Tokyo. In the comments she asks for a parfait big enough to share. Nothing too extravagant, or sweet. A parfait filled with fruits, if possible. Maybe a stupidly big heart as the centerpiece, so everyone knew that Asuka Washio and Ran Takarabe were dating and in love and once EDGE made it big, all of Japan, no, all of the world, would wish they were them.

Ran deletes the entire section and asks for a booth by the window, and an ice cream sundae. Still not too sweet. Hold all the marshmallow, the unnecessary whipped cream and the sprinkles. That’s probably an abomination to ask for, sure, but—ugh. It’s not the dessert buffet Kotone mentioned, but it’s somewhere in Shibuya, not too far from the station. They’d take the train there, sightsee, stay at Kei’s place. If she asked, he would clean everything. Even the attic, if they had one. It’s a steep fare, but for a summer weekend away from the mountainside, it wasn’t too bad. Mm. She could use the payment from last month’s modeling gig. School sponsored events were usually unpaid, but the branding manager refused to let her out the door without a travel voucher, some coupon from their favorite company.

The confirmation email details the reservation and Ran sighs. When she’s done taking a screenshot for future reference, she falls down on her pillows and scrolls down her timeline. Kotone finally uploaded the festival pictures from earlier in June. Despite Ran telling her one thousand times to not upload the selfie she took while Ran was asleep in the back of the car, it’s kotone’s new profile picture. 

> _ #hanging with the bestie <3  _

It’s really horrible. She’s got drool dribbling down her chin. The antithesis of punk rock. She puts her phone to charge, but before she can get up to turn the lights off, she hears her phone beep. Ran picks it up, tilts her head, and unlocks the screen. 

> **ASUKA** : i wouldn’t mind 
> 
> **ASUKA** : going. if you want.

Ran drops her phone. Asuka uses the cutest stickers. She didn’t even know she used stickers. When they text it’s always like talking, sometimes long winded and sometimes cut and dry, but always into the night before one of them fell asleep and sent a quick “my bad” the morning after.

Sentient pudding with fluffy white wings. She wonders if someone from her unit gifted her them. She couldn’t see Asuka going out of her way to use anything but the generic set that came with the messaging app. 

Ugh.

Too cute? Ran rolls over on her stomach to bury her face in her pillow. She yells a little bit. Only a little! It’s not that serious. They’ve been dating for how long now—it still feels like the first time they walked home together with pinky fingers barely touching, walking way past the fork in the road that would separate them. They had chocolate milk and musubi at the convenience store, and felt sick to their stomachs that night, but it was…

It was something Ran treasured. The moments where they leaned against each other and wished for a longer time together.

God, how sappy. Disgusting. She wrinkles her nose but the red that settles in her cheeks betrays her. 

> **RAN** : cool
> 
> **RAN:** cool, yeah. i’ll pick you up?

What kind of—Ran groans. She says it all cool, like she can drive, like she’s going up to her front door with flowers. 

> **ASUKA** : on what? the train? 
> 
> **ASUKA** : we can meet at the station.
> 
> **RAN** : haha wow
> 
> **ASUKA** : noon? 
> 
> **RAN** : you seem more excited now
> 
> **ASUKA** : …
> 
> **ASUKA** : don’t think about it too much.
> 
> **RAN** : tokyo? 

Her fingers glide over the touchscreen.

> **RAN** : we can visit kei, he’ll put us up for a couple of nights. they’re doing a guerrilla live. 

She can see Asuka’s furrowed brow perfectly. 

> **ASUKA** :
> 
> **ASUKA** : you don’t play fair. 
> 
> **ASUKA** : noon, then.

The conversation ends with a _goodnight_ , _see_ _you_ _tomorrow_ , and Ran puts her phone back on the floor. She gets under the blankets, and stares at the ceiling for too long. 

.

.

.

“Hey? Hey? Raaaaaaaaan?” 

“Shut up…”

The knocking gets incessant. There’s banging on the wall, next, and she almost gets up to throw Sho into the hallway. The bath’s too nice to leave, and she was going to spend the morning right before she had to take the train to Tokyo. Sho was probably irritated that she was taking all the hot water, but once he got a girlfriend, maybe he would understand.

This didn’t stop her from taking all the hot water before the fact, but that’s not important. Her hair floats around her head, and she sinks into the bathwater, nose deep. After a while, her little brother leaves, probably to complain to anyone who would listen. He doesn’t make a big deal out of things, he was a serious kid, yeah, but when it came to hot water, he was absolutely insufferable. Ran can’t remember if she was like this with Kei, but knowing her older brother, he was probably the one who took all the water, and still complained about not having enough. 

Sigh.

She should really, get out. Get ready for the day. She’s been moping and reconsidering the day’s itinerary for the twentieth time in the last hour. She packed her weekend bag before taking her bath, and her parents already gave her their blessing and some spending money. Nothing too extravagant, she doesn’t let them, she can do this on her own. If anything ended up being an issue, she could always get Kei to help out. Even if she didn’t want him to help, she blows bubbles, he would shove his nose into the situation. 

A little bit after, she’s dressed in front of her full length mirror. She considers blow drying her hair, but there’s a lot of it, and it’s still super wet. Annoying, but whatever. Not a complete hinderance. She takes her house keys, stuffs them into her purse, and grabs her duffel bag. 

“I’ll send you a text when i get there.” 

Sho waves behind a study book. 

“Have a safe trip.”

.

.

.

A Tokyo date. She never expected that one day she would have to wait for the three hour train like this. Ran’s doing her best to not fidget. It’s a nice train ride, the countryside melts into metal and concrete, but she’s always felt more at ease in the gray and sleek. 

She leans against a wall plastered with flyers for Hikagaku’s summer bash. It’s an event Asuka’s unit was famous for, but this year they were collaborating with some first years. Something something about passing the baton. 

“Did you wait long?”

Ran turns around and nearly falls over herself. Asuka tilts her head. Her hair’s tamed by two braids, and she’s wearing a cute sundress with tennis shoes. Ran’s ensemble only works to accentuate hers. Are they matching? (No, they’re not. Ran’s wearing jeans with more holes than fabric and an old band t-shirt. Her hair’s in a ponytail, and her sunglasses rest on her head. Sure. They match if the objective was to not.) 

“Nah. I just got here.”

She’s been waiting for half an hour, but who’s counting. Ran offers to take Asuka’s backpack. Asuka shrugs, but doesn’t give it to her. The train leaves. They get window seats. The mountains disappear behind them, and Asuka ends up falling asleep, cheek pressed against the glass. 

It’s a long three hours, but not as long as Ran admits when Kei picks them up. He’s grinning, arm slung around Asuka’s shoulder, like he’s about to recommend a tour of activities. Ran cuts him off and they drop their bags in his car before Ran pulls Asuka into the city. Her sun-kissed hair whips behind her, and Ran's heart skips a beat.

“It’s loud.”

Yes, it is. Ran is surprised Asuka can hear it behind her headphones, always around her neck, playing something low. She’s surprised she can hear it over Ran’s heart, it’s beating against her chest so fast, faster than she wants to admit. They hold hands to not get lost but Ran’s grip gets tighter and Asuka squeezes back. 

“It’s not that far, just around this corner.” 

It’s a cute cafe, tucked behind a movie theater and a pawn shop, nothing extravagant but it makes Ran breathe easy, and makes Asuka’s eyes light up. There’s an old jukebox next to the bar. Wooden tables and chairs, dark curtains, and half closed blinds. They’re seated almost immediately, a server is already coming out with the sundae.

They talk about nothing in particular, they talk about the decor and the city, and how a year was all that was left between them and a large scale debut. They would be competing against dusk2dawn, you know, Ran says with a laugh and Asuka sighs, by then they’ll be our fans, not the other way around. 

That’s their dream, huh.

A shared one, a precious one. Ran digs her elbows into the table and gives Asuka a curious stare. A mystery to her, mostly. She’s unsure what vibe she’s giving off, all she knows is that she really loves her. She really does. They have an entire year together, yes, and even after the stomachache that would plague them the entire weekend, and the show in the Shibuyan underground, a year was all they needed to flourish. They would grow brighter with every passing day, and supernova into adults, crashing into an entertainment scene unprepared for them.

Their music would change its core.

“Ran? He-llo?” 

She blinks, and finds Asuka leaning over the table, her face incredibly close to hers. 

“You were spacing out. Y’alright?” 

Ran swallows down her embarrassment and scratches the back of her head.

That would all have to wait, just a little longer. It was about the present day, right? the now?

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that. You were saying—”


End file.
